While there is a large and controversial literature on the implications of minimum wages for employment and the distribution of income, little is known about the consequences across regions. This column describes how the implementation of a minimum wage in Germany in 2015 has raised incomes in the lower part of the wage distribution without affecting employment of low-wage workers. However, there is no clear evidence that the minimum wage has led to a net in-migration or out-migration in poorer German counties.

Firms and individuals spend a lot of time finding the right fit. In this video, Jan Eeckhout explains the role of uncertainty, and how it could help explain the increase in wage inequality. This video was recorded at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics in November 2015.

Studies have confirmed an increase in earnings inequality in Japan, but do not agree on how or when it increased, or which groups were most affected. This column decomposes changes in earnings data to show a recent decrease in the returns to general human capital of almost all Japanese workers, at the same time as an increase in the returns to firm-specific human capital among male workers with high wage rates. Gender-based wage inequality has persisted.

Wage inequality was partly behind the vote for Brexit. This column shows how areas with relatively low median wages were substantially more likely to vote ‘Leave’, and discusses the likely implications of Brexit for wage inequality in the future. Increased likelihood of a recession, a negative shock to trade, reduced migration flows, and the possible loss of passporting rights for the City will all alter the structure of wages in ways that will need to be carefully monitored and studied in due course.

Income inequality has risen throughout the advanced world. Various explanations have been suggested for this, but these tend to focus on who you are. This column shifts the focus to where you work. Data from the US reveal that over the period 1992-2007, two-thirds of the rise in earnings dispersion was due to increased variation across establishments. Moreover, almost 80% of the increase in earnings dispersion among workers who remained at the same establishment from year to year was due to a widening of wages across establishments rather than within establishments.

Recent decades have seen a remarkable increase in the concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthiest in the US. This column examines which factors may have driven this increase. The evidence points to higher wage inequality, often attributed to new developments in the technology of production, as the main driving force, followed by tax cuts for top earners and more generous public transfers as secondary factors.

Wealth inequality in the US has followed a U-shaped evolution over the last century – there was a substantial democratisation of wealth from the Great Depression to the late 1970s, followed by a sharp rise in wealth inequality. This column discusses new evidence on the concentration of wealth in the US. Growing wealth disparity is fuelled by increases in both income and saving rate inequalities between the haves and the have nots.

The top 1% of US earners now command a far higher share of the country's income than they did 40 years ago. This column looks at 18 OECD countries and disputes the claim that low taxes on the rich raise productivity and economic growth. It says the optimal top tax rate could be over 80% and no one but the mega rich would lose out.

Is international trade a source of widening wage inequality in industrial countries? This column shows that export activity in Germany contributes to wage inequality among workers with different levels of skill, but diminishes wage gaps in German manufacturing between men and women and between German citizens and non-citizens.

The increase in the return to education is typically measured using nominal wages. The author of CEPR DP6997 looks at housing costs for high school and college graduates and discovers that, when looking at real as opposed to nominal wages, the return to education and the increase in inequality may be smaller than previously thought.

Much of the growing wage inequality stems from increased inequality between firms rather than within firms, suggesting inequality is driven by changes in firm-level productivity related to new technology rather than to international trade or institutions. Trade protectionism or re-energising unions may do relatively little to reverse the increase in inequality.

In recent years, the skill premium in the US manufacturing sector is declining and the skill intensity increasing. The authors of CEPR DP6042 argue that this pattern can be linked to globalization and the rise in offshoring.

Since the 1970s, the number of hours worked per employee has fallen substantially in continental Europe, while it has remained roughly constant in the US. The authors of CEPR DP6314 show that this divergence in the number of hours worked per employee on the two sides of the Atlantic can be explained by the evolution of the respective labour market conditions over the last three decades.